Lucky Star
by RogueJacksonators
Summary: Teen singer actress Piper McLean competes on reality ballroom dancing competition Dancing with the Stars with three-time champion Jason Grace. Currently rated K but might be changed to T in future depending on my mood.
1. Prologue

GUYS what's up? I haven't written in ages, plus I changed my name. Yeah i love dwts

* * *

_Still got the same smile that sets me off  
'Cuz there's just something about you  
I got these feelings —_

Piper slid her phone open. "Hello?"

"Hey Piper!" It was Lacy, her agent-cum-publicist. "Did you get Mitchell's message?" Mitchell was Lacy's assistant.

"Hi Lacy," Piper replied. "No, I haven't. Didn't check my phone. Sorry."

She pictured Lacy shaking her head on the other side of the phone. As one of the leads of the latest hit movie (the first installation of a series as well), plus newly discovered singer, Piper got quite a number of calls (via Lacy or Mitchell, obviously) about tons of stuff. Usually she declined all the offers unless she was personally interested (like that guest role where all she did was eat ice cream) and never really cared too much in the first place. Lacy, on the other hand, liked to keep up to date.

"It's fine, Piper," Lacy said, although both girls knew she meant _next time we meet, you're going to have a long lecture._ "Anyway, you've been invited to compete on Dancing with the Stars! The schedule is kinda crazy, more packed than you're filming plus training for Evo, but it seems like fun. And you get to meet hot dancer guys."

Piper rolled her eyes. "Lacy, you know I'm not interested in guys." But she was interested, no less. She learnt ballet and street jazz when she was younger but stopped two years ago when she moved to do acting. DWTS was one of her favourite reality shows because it reminded her of her old classes.

"Whatever you say, Piper," Lacy chatted away. "If you can get back soon enough, you can be on the next season, 21." Some clicking could be heard on the other end of the line. Piper guessed that Lacy was checking her emails for details. "They're offering at least $25,000. The longer you stay, the more you earn. Plus the mirrorball trophy. So, what do you say, Piper? You think it's worth it?"

Piper grinned. "Forget the money, I'd do it for free."

* * *

P.S. I still sign of as hbMx

happy ff-ing (?!)

-hbMx


	2. Pre-show and week 1 rehearsals

_Teen singer actress Piper McLean competes on reality ballroom dancing competition Dancing with the Stars with three-time champion Jason Grace._

_The competition kicks off._

**A/N: brace yourselves because this is gonna be a long one!**

* * *

"I think she's done now, she'll be around here."

"Pipeeer!"

Piper turned towards the sound of her name. Her co-star, Ryan, was weaving through the crowded room, followed by a blond haired guy who looked slightly older than her and two camera men wearing a black polo that stated DWTS CAM. _They're here! _she thought.

She looked back at the blond guy. Tall, cropped golden hair and blue eyes. Piper recognised him immediately. Jason Grace. Three-time champion. Won with Nicki Lee Garcia, Sheila Johansen and Stacy Miller in seasons 12, 15 and 19 respectively.

SHe smiled and made her way over. Ryan stepped aside with a sweeping motion of his arm. She laughed at his antics and turned back to the pro. "Hi."

"Hey," Jason greeted her. They shook hands.

"Am I interrupting anything?" Jason asked, pushing some if his hair back.

Piper shook her head. "No we were just gathering today to see the first draft of the script for the next movie. I'm almost done now, I'm just waiting for them to print the production schedules."

"Oh yeah, the Evolution series. I liked those books," Jason commented earnestly. "I'm waiting for the fourth one to come out. Do you have any sneak peeks? Anyone dies? Lives?"

Piper laughed. "I don't know. Rick's not here today. I can pass all enquiries on if you want, though. So, any more questions?"

"Yeah," Jason replied, chuckling slightly. "Do I call you Katherine or Piper?"

_This is going well, _Piper thought.

_Sunday. 9.12 am_

"Okay, so whatever we get here kind of determines what you dance next week as well, since they want you to dance 2 different styles within the first 2 weeks - usually ballroom and latin," Jason explained. He held out the shiny grey envelope. "Go ahead. Open your card."

After about 2 weeks of learning the basics, Piper was going to start on her first dance of the season. Jason had actually picked the card a long time ago but they both decided to keep it a secret until now.

Cha-cha, foxtrot or contemporary. She would have preferred foxtrot, but she knew Jason would rather her start with contemporary because it was something closer to what she had learnt before.

Piper pulled the card out an inch. There was a printed C. She pulled it out all the way.

"Cha-cha," she announced, holding the card up.

Jason sighed and smiled. "Okay, just let me have jazz next week because i _hate _the quickstep." He took out the CD included in the envelope. "Let's hear the song."

It was a slightly remixed version of Kiss by Prince. Both of them were satisfied with the song and the tempo and by noon, Jason had already choreographed the first verse.

"...don't _and_ have to be _and _cool _da bum _to rule my _uh _world," he called out, clapping to the beat as Piper ran through the steps.

"...particular sign... Hips!" he yelled. "Move your hips!"

Piper groaned. She was hating this latin stuff, with the hip action and butt shaking stuff. Latin sounded fun, but she wasn't sure about the whole 'sexy' thing.

Jason laughed at her frustration and walked over, placing his hands on her hips. "It doesn't have to bee too much if you don't want," he told her, pushing her hips out towards the right. "It just needs to be more obvious. If you want to make it look relative you can twist your upper body a bit and get away for the first few weeks."

Piper leaned her torso to the left. Her posture looked weird in the mirror. "I don't like the idea of after the first few weeks."

"Oh, that's when the real fun begins," Jason assured her. He smirked. "Also, I'm letting you off for now, but eventually you might need to wear heels."

_Monday, 7.49 am_

Music. Screaming. Cheering.

As Piper waited backstage on the set of Good Morning America, she listened for the troupe to finish their dance. Crew members scuttled around with mics and clipboards rounding people together. She recognised a few faces - Khione, the Olympic ice dancer, Percy Jackson, champion swimmer, Silena Beauregard, popular model etc.

The loud applause meant that the troupe performance had ended and the DWTS hosts - Dakota and Gwen had gone onstage.

There was talking, bantering, joking, before Dakota finally announced the first competitor. Then more laughing and talking, more announcing.

"One-nine, stand by please." Someone patted Piper on the shoulder and lined her up in the wings. Then Gwen called the guy standing in front of her. Frank Zhang. Former hockey league player.

Someone was announced, then she heard Dakota say, "Also known as Katherine Hachting from the new movie adaptation Evolution, our youngest competitor at the age of 17, bring it on for...Piper McLean!"

Someone whispered "do something dance-y" to her as she stepped forward. Her jazz instincts took over and she slid out onto the thrust to the audience's cheering. The smile naturally came on as she did a turn and walked towards her seat, waving.

Three more people were announced, then Gwen and Dakota walked around asking questions. She shook hands with Frank on her right, and said hi to Reyna Avila something-something, the gymnast on her left.

Gwen came over. "Alright, Piper, you're the youngest competitor this season, how does it feel, intimidating?" she asked. Piper leaned forward to the mike. "Well, you know, maybe I'll get my growth spurt during the competition, since I'm a late bloomer, then I won't look so young anymore and I can blend in." The crowd laughed and some people even started whooping. "But, I'm not scared or anything." Gwen faced the audience. "And also, the youngest winner ever was also just 17 when she won her mirrorball, so you've got some history on your side" she said, smiling broadly, before turning to Reyna, the next youngest at 21.

Gwen and Dakota then went on the announce the pros. Piper recognised all of them from watching the previous seasons, and was genuinely happy for those that had been promoted from the troupe. Then Dakota read,

"Alright, now for our star from Evolution, Piper, you get the pro who has _evolved _quite a bit since he first danced on this show." The audience laughed at the reference. Dakota stopped to let them have their bit, then continued, "Returning for his eleventh season on the show, triple treat Jason Grace!"

Jason came out of the left wings, strolling casually down the thrust. Piper got up to meet him and instead of hugging they performed a special handshake - as practiced. "Wow, looks like someone's already busting the moves," Gwen commented.

_Wednesday, 3.44pm_

"Turn," Jason instructed, "and right, and left - hip! And cha-cha-cha."

Piper half-turned and swung her right leg round to the back while Jason mirrored her. When it touched the floor she quickly transferred her weight and, sitting on the right, let her left leg slide out, turning her body to face the front mirror. She felt Jason's arm hold her waist to stabalise her as she sat down on his leg (he, on his part, had to do a turn into a kneel). Their outer arms were held at a high angle so that they formed an asymmetrical V.

They held the final position for about three seconds until Jason spoke up, "great! That was good." Piper stood up and adjusted her costume - a typical sparkly red latin dress with a ruffled skirt that looked like it was made of flames when she did her spins. She also had matching sandals with special flexible soles ("cheat" latin shoes), and the hair department said she would have some hair accessories as well. Jason got a simple black t-shirt with a matching red vest and black pants.

"The dress all good?" Jason asked her. She nodded. "It's okay. It doesn't get in the way of anything and these shoes are comfy." She bounced up and down a few times on the balls of her feet to prove her point. Jason smiled. "Yeah, I'm not sure how long it'll take the judges to call them out though. Lupa can be really strict." Piper wrinkled her nose at the though of wearing heels.

One of the crew members who had been directing the filming for their rehearsal package approached Jason and the two men conversed briefly. Jason turned back to her and said, "we're due for our photoshoot in 15 minutes. Why don't you go get changed first? I'll settle somethings then catch up with you later."

"Sure."

Piper's attire for the photoshoot was a similar dress, but purple, and without the ruffles (and actual latin shoes). Jason had on orange button-down, and they joked about swapping costumes because they were wearing each other's favourite colour. She let her hair down as instructed the day before and made her way to the photo studio.

A woman pulled her aside as soon as she stepped in. "Hi, I'm Silena, head of wardrobe," she introduced. Piper studied her. Silena did look like the perfect head of wardrobe. Her hair was done up into a fashionable bun, her make-up was subtle but brought out all the details, and her clothes were trendy. Piper shook her hand and noticed that Silena's nails had shiny nail polish (but not overbearing).

Silena called one of her assistants over. "This is Maria - she's in charge of all your make-up and hairdo needs." Maria smiled warmly at Piper and Piper reciprocated. Siena studied Piper for a while, then she turned to Maria. "Give her a dutch into a side braid, but make it casual. Let the hair in the front mess up a bit. Put some feathers in too." She ran off to check on another competitor, or dancer.

Jason was already there when Maria had finished Piper's braid. She found him chatting with one of the other pros, Annabeth Chase (season 14 and 18 winner). Jason saw her introduced her. Annabeth smiled. "Nice hair." Piper had to agree. The braid came down her left and the eagle feather Maria had weaved in matched her browns perfectly.

They were interrupted by Silena's shouting. "Alright - 21-8!" Her eyes scanned the room and landed on the trio of them. "Annabeth! Where's Jackson?"

Annabeth groaned and turned around. "I have no idea," she yelled back, sounding exasperated. "He's the most unresponsive person to his texts!" Silena mumbled something to the person next to her. She looked Piper in the eye. "Okay then, 21-9, Jason, Piper McLean, get ready." Jason took her hand and led her to the green screen.

_Friday, 9.02am_

**_DWTS Season 21 official cast photos released!_**

Piper followed the link on the abc website and scrolled through down until she found her picture. Out of about twenty different poses, the producers had picked the one where both she and Jason had their inner legs bent and their back leg pointing straight out. Jason was supporting Piper's waist and Piper had her right arm straight up. They were both smiling at her against the satin silver background that had been photoshopped over the green screen. They also had individual shots of all the pros and contestants, and Piper had a mid shot of her turning towards the camera, smiling while Jason got a full-body photo of him doing a dance move. She saved all the pictures as her new wallpaper and posted them on whosay (essentially twitter, instagram, and her official facebook page. She had no idea how it worked but that was what Lacy said so).

She texted Jason. _Like our official photos?_

She didn't expect him to respond anytime soon because she knew he had pro troupe rehearsals, so she was surprised when he responded almost immediately. _They look great. You got your new headshot for auditions I suppose? And the finally got rid of that stupid glittery background, thank the gods._

Piper chuckled at the thought of Jason and glitter, thinking about the cast photos from previous seasons. When she looked down she realised she had another text.

_Don't forget your steps! We have camera blocking and dress rehearsal tomorrow! Happy day off for you_

Piper smiled and typed her reply. This was going to be a great experience.

* * *

**A/N: I made most people uncanonically older than Piper so that the story and the pros' backgrounds work. Also for the people who are repping the judges/hosts, they will be more OOC to fit the typical personalities of Tom and Brooke/Erin. **


End file.
